Homelessness

Approximately 650,000 people in the U.S. on any given night are homeless (National Statistics & Research, 2012). Some people may think homelessness is not prevalent in the U.S. because it is a developed country, but this startling number indicates otherwise. One does not even need to go to big cities such as Los Angeles or New York City to see homeless people. By simply walking down State Street or Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one can see homeless people sitting against the wall with cardboard signs asking for food or money. When people see these homeless citizens, they sometimes walk by without even acknowledging their existence. This could be due to a sense of discomfort people feel about homeless people asking for money or simply the fact that they are sitting on the road in an unclean state. For our symposium project, we aim to address the issue of society’s attitude towards homelessness. By conducting an online survey, we hope to learn more about how students perceive homeless people. This data will help display the current state of mind of people who surround us every day. We hope to use our symposium project to collect information about people’s perceptions, educate others about people suffering from homelessness, and change society’s views of the homeless.